I would say it would be riskier buying from a private party than a dealer that you might be able research and verify if you do this from another state. Don't wire any money to any one unless you know who the individual is. A bank check is the safest way to do business and have the person send you a photocopy of the title in his name and address before you send anything.. Ebay may be the safest way to do this although I really don't know if they stand by there buyer protection policy's. This is always risky nowadays.

Dealing through Banks directly and requiring proper executing of all documents is a good and fairly easy way to handle most transactions domestically and abroad. China is a rapidly growing market but I am not current on the way financial transactions are handled there. Having an agent or, as mentioned earlier, working through a licensed dealer is easier but can be more costly.

Happened to talk to my banker today about this exact question. She said the best and safest way to handle the transfer is IF both the buyer an seller have accounts at different branches of the same national bank (e.g. Chase, BankAmerica, etc). Buyer and seller meet at the buyer's or seller's branch and the funds are transferred from the buyer's account to the seller's account. The title can then be endorsed and notarized at the same time. The seller has guaranteed funds in his account and the buyer has a notarized title in his hand.

She caution against a bank check (certified) since they can be forged. Another way is to use a wire transfer, but timing could be an issue since the buyer would be sending the money to the seller before he receives the title.

I had this problem buying a car 1200 miles away from a private seller. Whatever you do, do not do a wire transfer without being at the point of delivery of the auto. Once you initiate the transfer, you have no chance of controlling whatever happens after that. It is the same as sending a stranger cash in advance. In my case, it would have taken several days for the wire transfer to go through and I had no intention of arriving at the point of purchase and having to wait until the transfer cleared.

I had no reason to believe that the seller was not completely honest, and he had no reason to believe other than that about me. Nevertheless, we did not know each other and a large amount of money was involved. I did not want to fly 1200 miles from home with a large amount of cash on my person, so we had a problem.

After much thought, I went to the local bank branch manager where I have my checking and savings accounts and explained my predicament. He prepared a cashiers check for me in the name of the seller. He then scanned the check, called the seller, verified that I was a trusted client and sent the scanned copy of the cashiers check to the buyer. He also gave the seller his personal telephone number and told the seller he could call him for verification when I arrived to take possession of the car and give him the cashiers check.

It turned out that this plan worked out well. By this time the buyer was convinced that the deal was legitimate and when we went to his bank to cash the cashiers check, he did not bother to call my bank manager for verification. The scanned cashiers check he had previously received from my bank exactly matched what I gave him, so no problem.

Too bad we can no longer trust bank cashiers checks and need to conduct our affairs in this convoluted way.

If you bank at a Credit Union that is part of the nationwide CU network, you can access your funds at a Credit Union that's local to the seller's location. Assuming you'll be closing the deal in person, you can get a cashier's check drawn on your funds made out to the seller.

That's how I just bought my C4 down in San Diego before driving back to Denver. Oh yeah, the Credit Union charged a whole $5.00 for the service.

I purchased my Z4 through an independent shop as my buying agent and an escrow account. I deposited money in the account, when the independent shop received the car, he did a complete inspection, then sent all paperwork to me to verify clear title, then i had 10 days to register the car, the independent shop released the cash to the seller. Then I used Dependable Auto shippers to ship the car. BTW, the independent shop cost me 325 for the pre purchase inspection and the shipping was around 200. This was in 2007